pawnfandomcom-20200222-history
Level-Down
One unique feature of Pawn is how it treats character growth. Like many other role-playing games, a character's general level of power is determined by the metrics of Level and Experience Points. Unlike those games, however, players revert to Level 1 every real-time day. To offset this loss, every time a player's level resets, they gain an advancement, an opportunity to choose from the various permanent bonuses that they have discovered from their previous actions and repeated level-ups. This results in an almost roguelike series of upward curves in growth broken by sharp downward drops, though the drop is less severe with each consecutive advancement. This unique rule of play was known as Level-Down in Pawn's third season, and has not officially been referred to by a different name since. Gaining Experience The amassing of experience through any means possible is a primary tenet of the game, as it is only through expenditure of EXP and repeated level-ups that a player's character can statistically advance. There are many ways of gaining experience, the primary of which being the defeat of opponents in combat. One can also gain experience by using certain skills in combat, eating, drinking, and sleeping. To level up, a player must possess a number of EXP equal to or higher than their current level. This action can be taken at any time, even in the middle of combat. Upon level-up, the following effects apply: *HP is restored. *Secondary pools, such as AGI, EVA, and MP are restored. *The character's number of damage dice increases by 1. *New advantages may become available. Also, when leveling up, the player loses all current experience, regardless of cost. If a Level 1 player has 20 EXP and chooses to level up, they lose all 20 points, though the cost is normally only 2 points. There is an exception to this, as detailed under Sleeping. Eating A player can eat once per level to gain the EXP yielded by a piece of food. Until they gain a level, they will not gain any more EXP from food after the first meal. Food often carries other beneficial effects, such as HP restoration, and these effects are, presumably, not barred by the same rule. Eating can be done during combat, and requires the player's entire turn. Drinking Players can consume drinks whenever they please, as many times per level as they wish. The EXP benefits are frequently smaller than those for food, but they also offer greater HP restoration and temporary combat improvements. Another benefit of drinks are that, while they are presumably limited to one per turn, quaffing a drink does not take an entire turn, and can be executed alongside an attack! Sleeping Getting frequent rest can benefit a player greatly, as it is a good source of EXP and can reduce EXP loss greatly. Players can sleep only once every real-time hour, and a period of rest lasts for five minutes. Upon going to sleep, a player gains EXP equal to their current Max Level. What's more, if they elect to level up while they are sleeping, they will only lose the amount of EXP equal to their level, instead of resetting their total as normal. Eating and drinking during sleep are prohibited, as are, one would assume, any other actions of any real consequence. Players cannot sleep during combat (and it would be extremely unwise to attempt it anyways) and can only sleep while they are not under attack or in the face of any other immediate danger. Choosing particularly comfortable sleeping places or procuring quality sleeping conditions can sometimes result in higher EXP gain or other benefits.